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Handprint Quilt Part One: Embroidery Work

For Sister’s teacher, I made a keepsake quilt with each students handprint and their name embroidered over the top of the print. It turned out beautifully and I wish that I could share a full image with you all but I can’t for privacy reasons. But I can show you snippets and give you the tips and tricks of doing your own quilt.

I also plan to save Sister’s handprints and names so that I can make her a quilt at the end of her high school career. Each year around the middle to end of the year I’ll collect her print and name to save for her own quilt later on. I’ll do the same for the other kids as well. I’m pretty excited about that!

Each hand was traced onto printer paper cut into an 8″x8″ square. I actually cut the squares out so that parents would know that it needed to fit inside that square. None of the kids have huge prints but some did spread their hands out fairly wide so I am glad that I designated the size. I then taped the page directly onto the muslin that was stretched in my hoop. (I did cut away the excess paper prior to stitching.) Embroider the entire print and then carefully begin tearing the paper away. I found that it was easier to pull away large sections first then to actually hold the stitch line between my fingers while pulling away the remaining paper. When using 3 strands of embroidery floss you will see more stretching (bubbling) of the stitches, with 6 less. Just a tip you might want to take into consideration. 🙂

Here is the corner label I did. Straight lines are much easier to pull paper away from, of course.

I did give the kids a strip of paper for their name that was 2 inches by 8 inches. Some filled the whole space, some wrote large letters, and 2 wrote their names at less than a half inch tall…I had to use tweezers to get the paper away from some letters, especially e’s or any letter with a center.

Here is a photo prior to the edge work but after it was pieced and tacked. I love how it turned out.